However, Land Use Code revisions being considered by the Board of County Commissioners would permit up to two honey bee colonies on each building lot parcel within a suburban residential zoning district -- with a queen and her worker bees counting as one colony.

The proposed land-use regulatory changes also would allow up to eight hens, but no roosters, on a suburban residential zoning district building lot parcel.

Land Use Department planner Abby Shannon said there are more than 2,000 parcels of property in the unincorporated Boulder County's suburban residential zoning districts, including all or parts of such subdivisions as Knollwood, Heatherwood, Twin Lakes, Gunbarrel Estates, Northwest Acres, Cottonwood Park West, Gunbarrel Green and Palo Park, as well as some unincorporated county enclaves within the city of Boulder.

Shannon told commissioners in a memo, though, that it's likely that some of those subdivisions have privately enforced covenants that might still prohibit keeping chickens or bees even if the county Land Use Code is changed to permit them.

Shannon said the Land Use staff has been in contact with homeowners associations in most of those subdivisions. She said those HOAs "are aware of the proposals and have not expressed formal opinions on them."

The Boulder County Planning Commission and the Land Use Staff are recommending the prohibition against roosters in suburban residential zoning districts, Shannon said, "because they are known to be louder and more aggressive than hens, two characteristics that aren't appropriate in residential neighborhoods with small parcels."

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